Week 3 Matchups + Packers in Peril, Wheel of Shame! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/25

Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast

The episode provides a comprehensive breakdown of NFL Week 3 matchups and critical injury updates for fantasy football managers. The hosts a

Key takeaways

• Jordan Love is facing significant pressure due to poor offensive line play, leading to high sack counts.
• Tucker Kraft saw eight targets in recent action but only managed 26 receiving yards.

Main topics

• NFL Injury News
• Week 3 Matchup Previews

Notable quotes

Jordan Love's not long for the NFL with the way the offensive line is playing.

Conclusion

A vital guide for navigating heavy injury volatility and lineup optimi

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:06) to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Speaker 1 (0:22) Welcome in. I Speaker 2 (0:31) really wanted to Speaker 1 (0:32) hit you with a, it's garbage time. We did have some of that. Friday, September 18th, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike, the Fantasy Hitman, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway back with you. Speaker 1 (0:47) Great show for you today. Jumping back into the fantasy forecast, more matchups. We've got the Wheel of Shame. We've got our fantasy face-off. We have news, injuries, Foot Clan Friday. Speaker 1 (1:02) Packer panic in the streets. Speaker 2 (1:05) 35 Speaker 1 (1:05) to 14. What a difference a not Cooper Rush makes. Speaker 3 (1:09) Yeah, I mean, we had talked about that. Like, you cannot say that Drake London is bad or, you know, that the Falcons are what we saw those first two weeks. Also, the Packers are very bad. I Speaker 1 (1:23) mean, let's go to resident Packer fan. Oh, yeah, Jer. Speaker 3 (1:26) Jer, how you do it? Oh. Wait a minute. He's doing Speaker 1 (1:29) an impression. Where is he? Speaker 2 (1:32) Papa Josh Speaker 1 (1:33) is the villain. He's fake crying. Al isn't even here. I think he's taking a day for, it's a mental health day for him. Speaker 3 (1:40) He Speaker 2 (1:40) did have a Speaker 1 (1:40) note in Speaker 3 (1:42) our Slack channel last night because he had to go Speaker 1 (1:46) watch a performance. He lives and breathes the Packers. Yes, he is Speaker 3 (1:50) a diehard Packers fan. And he said, fortunately, I couldn't watch the game. Probably saved my life. Speaker 1 (1:57) Well, I mean, I'll tell you who, you know. Jordan Love's not long for the NFL with the way the offensive line is playing. He's been sacked more than anybody through three games. And Speaker 3 (2:06) a lot of them are like comically ragdoll type of sacks. I Speaker 1 (2:11) mean, you look at this game and then you're like, Jordan Love attempted 53 passes, more than double the amount of passes Michael Penix Jr. had. Oh, oh, but that's because the running backs combined for 17 yards on, or sorry, that's not even right. 16 yards. No, 17 yards on eight carries. Marshawn Lloyd, Caleb Johnson. I mean, the offensive line is making its impact across the board. Speaker 2 (2:39) The soothsayers out there calling for the Caleb Johnson breakout game. Nope. Nope. The Tucker Speaker 1 (2:48) Craft breakout game. Nope. Nope. But don't worry. Sky Moore got seven targets. Tucker Craft, Speaker 2 (2:55) the epitome of fantasy football here, of game environment, ended up sensational. Speaker 1 (3:02) 53 pass attempts. Speaker 2 (3:03) Opportunity for Tucker Craft. Eight targets. Your Speaker 1 (3:07) tight end Speaker 2 (3:08) got eight targets? Oh, that's very exciting. Except he caught what? Speaker 1 (3:14) Four Speaker 2 (3:14) of them. Speaker 1 (3:15) Four of them for how many yards? 26. And one of the catches, Mike, was one of the grossest passes I've ever seen thrown. It was a basically lateral. That one didn't count as a pass, did it? That Speaker 3 (3:27) was a backwards pass. Speaker 1 (3:29) That's not a rush attempt. He'd be in rush attempts. He caught the ball. It was one of his four catches. That is generous. He tipped Speaker 3 (3:35) a Speaker 1 (3:35) ball that went flying sideways. He caught it. He dropped two passes, which, by the way, he only dropped three. Three is the most he's dropped in a year, and he dropped two last night. Speaker 3 (3:44) Yeah, he's not back. He's not back to full strength. I mean, this is in the offseason, I was saying, he was kind of off my board at ADP because I don't want the slow start. However, I fully expect Kraft to be awesome this year. He is very involved. He's very good. He's working his way back to full health. full strength, and they've got to figure out this offensive line. Can Michael Speaker 1 (4:04) Parsons play right tackle? Speaker 3 (4:05) I'm sure he can. I'm Speaker 2 (4:07) sure he can. I Speaker 3 (4:08) bet Speaker 2 (4:08) on the list of things he could figure out. Speaker 1 (4:10) How about 194 yards rushing by Bijan and 194 yards receiving by Drake London? Baby, it is more Speaker 3 (4:17) than five yards from Kyle Pitts. They hogged them all. Kyle Pitts Speaker 1 (4:22) won for five. I'm still winning that trade, boys. Speaker 2 (4:25) Epic tight end failure. Speaker 2 (4:29) I mean, there was so much fantasy goodness in this one. The Falcons guys, Matthew Golden, 101, delightful. Christian Watson, my guy, a little bit, maybe some stinky. I don't care. We got 96 and a touchdown out of Christian Watson. So overall, I mean, Tucker Craft getting the eight targets and doing nothing, major, major disappointment. But overall, Speaker 1 (4:55) pretty good for fantasy. Couldn't be more over for Marshawn Lloyd. Yeah, I mean, he's not Speaker 3 (5:03) that Speaker 1 (5:04) good. Speaker 3 (5:05) And I wonder, you Speaker 1 (5:05) know, I've been saying. Yeah, I know what you're going to say. I've been saying Josh Jacobs. They Speaker 3 (5:09) need Josh Jacobs desperately. Here's the truth. They need a running game desperately. The last time we have seen Josh Jacobs with this team, they had a great running game. So I keep saying. They just need Josh Jacobs back, and they really do. They need a running back that can get it done. The question is, can Josh Jacobs get it done with this offensive line? Because right now they've got some big issues to figure out. Speaker 1 (5:36) Yeah, this was a nightmare. I mean, you were very lucky that Golden and Watson, if you had them, you got the big games considering how bad everything else went for the Packers. You know, Jordan Love, garbage time to himself. Jordan Speaker 2 (5:49) Love, Speaker 1 (5:49) 300 Speaker 2 (5:50) yards, two touchdowns. You're okay. Speaker 1 (5:52) That's fine. And I don't really lay a lot at the feet of Jordan Love. I mean, it's a discombobulated offense through and through. They're not doing anything well. They should be 0-3. They should be 0-3. Speaker 2 (6:01) They should Speaker 1 (6:01) be 0-3. They were very fortunate to come back and win against the Jets. And, yeah, it's Friday. Putt Clan Friday. Every week on Friday, we give $100 away via gift card to one of our supporters. Speaker 1 (6:25) And if you're over at jointhefoot.com, we appreciate you. Today's winner, Bamsey Pants. Sure. Why not? Yeah, Bamsey Pants with the dub. That's cool. Sometimes I feel like they're just – I know we randomly choose winners, but sometimes I feel Speaker 2 (6:46) like you don't randomly choose Speaker 1 (6:47) them. You just give me something funny to say. Speaker 2 (6:49) Our people are funny. They are. Let's Speaker 1 (6:52) talk news. Speaker 3 (6:55) News and notes from around the league. Speaker 1 (7:00) Commander's general manager, Adam Peters, said the team is optimistic about Jaden Daniels returning in 2026. As of right now, surgery and IR are not on the table. As of right now. Now. Speaker 3 (7:10) I heard one report saying he might miss as few as one game. TBD, but we were saying we were waiting for some news here. Looks like they're trying to get him back as soon as Speaker 1 (7:24) possible. All right, well, look, DJ Moore downgraded to a DMP on Thursday. Keon Coleman's still out. This is not a great situation. You don't want to go backwards in terms of designations during the week, so maybe DJ Moore is going to miss another week. They take on the Chargers at home. Keon Coleman would have been a nice, hey, give him Speaker 2 (7:44) a Speaker 1 (7:44) shot, but the truth is. You probably could do worse than Khalil Shakir this week. Khalil Shakir is a Speaker 3 (7:50) PPR option. And Dalton Kincaid continues to look like one of the steals of the draft. Speaker 1 (7:56) Nico Collins did not practice, not practicing today or Thursday. Jalen Coker, he had been downgraded to a DMT. That's weird. But was seen at practice today. Speaker 3 (8:07) Yeah, and it was said that he looked good at practice today. So I think Coker should be fine. Xavier Leguette was also back, right? Yes. Speaker 1 (8:16) So there Speaker 2 (8:18) you go. Speaker 1 (8:18) Caleb Douglas will not play this week for the Dolphins, the one receiver that looked like he had anything going. He's going to miss some time. Chris Bell expected to play this week. Adonai Mitchell, who got a lot of attention on yesterday's show, showed up on the injury report with a fingy injury. Oh, Speaker 3 (8:33) no, my fingy. I caught it Speaker 2 (8:35) in a jersey. They Speaker 1 (8:36) said there's some concern over the injury and he will be limited. I Speaker 2 (8:39) hate that that sounds so nonsense, but it's like, okay, imagine you got your finger stuck in someone's jersey and then it just like dislocated or something. Us Speaker 1 (8:50) mortals. We would call out of work for two weeks. Yeah, didn't I half break your thumb throwing you a football? And you were done for the year. Yeah, I was out. Speaker 3 (9:00) You were out. I do think fingers are pretty important for wide receivers to catch the Speaker 1 (9:04) ball. Speaker 3 (9:04) I'm just saying, Speaker 2 (9:04) we joke about it. We're like, but that's not great. There's Speaker 1 (9:08) concern he may not be able to play. Just more targets for Garrett Wilson. Tajay Spears did not practice. Tony Pollard returned to practice. Rico Dowdle did not practice. Sam Darnold was upgraded to a full. practice for the Seahawks. All right. And then we do have injuries to catch you up on. We'll handle them and tackle them during the forecast. So let's jump right in. Fantasy Forecast presented by PrizePix. Yesterday we covered the Chargers, Bills, Panthers, Browns, Jets, Lions, Texans, Colts, Chiefs, Dolphins, Titans, Giants, Bengals, Steelers, Seahawks, Commanders. Speaker 1 (9:50) So if you want to hear those, you can listen to yesterday's episode. We've got seven more matchups to talk through, starting with the New England Patriots back to one-on-one, taking on the one-on-one Jacksonville Jaguars. This game's in Jacksonville, the Vegas line. Jacksonville minus three. The over-under is 45 and a half. Yeah, I don't know what you guys did with your little pool picks here in the office. This Speaker 2 (10:12) one Speaker 1 (10:12) was a troubling, difficult one for me. The Speaker 2 (10:15) first thing I did was look at the Atlanta Falcons versus the Green Bay Packers, and I was like. Speaker 1 (10:21) Come on. Come on. 13 straight home openers. Come on. That's how many they had won? Yeah. Speaker 2 (10:29) Oh, I didn't know Speaker 1 (10:29) that. And I was like, Atlanta, there's Speaker 2 (10:31) no way. They're going Speaker 1 (10:32) to screw this up, but I'm going to pick the Packers anyways. So that's how I've started. Yeah, well, look, this game, this one's interesting to me. New England's defense got it together last week. Drake May has not been a fantasy force thus far. Trevor Lawrence slowed down by Denver last week. How do you feel about the two? Ball throwers in this one. Speaker 3 (10:54) Better about Trevor Lawrence. Yes, that's exactly what I was just going to say. Even though Speaker 2 (10:57) it's the tougher matchup. I Speaker 3 (10:58) would prefer to play Trevor Lawrence over Drake May. We just haven't seen much good from Drake May since he lost his wide receivers. I mean, that's a difficult thing to try to do when you lost Diggs, you lost Booty, and then you replaced him with A.J. Brown, who you lost. Drake May is still a very good quarterback. I looked at his prize picks projection and almost went with it because, you know, to me it was like against Jacksonville you should do it. What is it? I'll look it up real Speaker 2 (11:32) quick. That was this morning when I was looking last. All right. How nasty are you willing to get with the quarterback position versus Drake May? Like are we saying Geno Smith against the Detroit Lions? Speaker 3 (11:46) Man, that is nasty. Speaker 2 (11:48) Kyler Murray against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kyler is interesting to me. I currently have Geno projected ahead of Drake Speaker 1 (11:56) May. Speaker 2 (11:56) There's Speaker 1 (11:56) no Speaker 2 (11:56) way I Speaker 1 (11:57) would try Kyler. The only plays we saw from Kyler were garbage. Then he got hurt. Speaker 2 (12:02) Okay, so you're not going, what about Geno? Speaker 1 (12:05) I don't think I would. I think I'd stick with Drake Speaker 2 (12:08) May. I would as well. The players that I would. The players Speaker 3 (12:12) that I would. play over may would be kind of those those love affairs we've talked about recently shock and bryce young that where it's like you might have picked them up off of waivers still be rostering drake may brock Speaker 2 (12:23) purdy for sure oh brock purdy for what about stafford against denver man Speaker 3 (12:28) is it is it in denver no i play may Speaker 3 (12:33) Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (12:34) I'm going to play. Oh, man. Speaker 1 (12:36) Trevo and Ramondre. Last week, Ramondre had the fumble, so he saw his snaps cut down to 36%. Trevo had the big play, but was held in check outside of that. Which of the two would you rather start this week, Mike? Dude, it's impossible. Speaker 2 (12:55) It would have been Ramondre last week, but he fumbled. This is... This is part of the, it's just a huge problem of you don't know when it will actually be Travion Henderson, at least for now with the current information. You know what sucks? I guess I would play Ramondre. So Speaker 1 (13:12) Travion had 60 % of snaps last week. How many targets do you think he had? Speaker 2 (13:15) Not Speaker 3 (13:16) enough. Speaker 1 (13:17) Zero is not enough. Zero targets, zero receptions. That's the part of like, how do you put Travion in a position where he can succeed? Speaker 1 (13:26) You know, he's the only one that can give you a special run, but he had 16 carries last week. How do you not give him a couple of screens when you don't have wide receivers? Speaker 3 (13:37) I think they will. I think they'll get him more and more involved. This was his, you know, his first game back, and they were up by so much in that game where, you know, I think it would have been different if it was, you know, a different game script. I did look up the Drake May projection here. Speaker 3 (13:57) 216 and a half passing yards. Yeah, I have him projected for around 250, and I'm like, oh, man. It's so tempting, but at the same time, he just has no one to throw the ball to because they won't put Trevo in the slot. Speaker 1 (14:11) Bashaw Tootin seems like he's the dude. Did you see in our League of Record, Chris Rodriguez got dumped this morning. The decision has been made. Six opportunities in each of the last two weeks. Parker Washington seems like the dude. Are you starting another wide receiver, Jason, for Jacksonville? Speaker 3 (14:27) I will say that I think a sneaky start is Brian Thomas Jr. in this matchup. You know, when you've got a superstar corner, which the Patriots do have, I don't know necessarily that they will use him in shadow coverage, but oftentimes that lets a quality wide receiver to shine. So this is a matchup where, you know, last year... You could throw on the Patriots. You Speaker 2 (14:51) calling Speaker 3 (14:51) him a quality Speaker 2 (14:51) wide receiver too? Speaker 3 (14:52) Yeah, I think Brian Thomas Jr. is a quality wide receiver too. You disagree? Speaker 2 (14:57) He's been real bad, man. He got eight targets last week. He got three of them for 40 yards. Speaker 1 (15:03) Oh, man, that sounds like Metcalf. Anytime a receiver catches a low percentage of their targets, that's calling in a Metcalf. Speaker 2 (15:13) So if we want to do that algebra Speaker 1 (15:15)